This was a lot better than I thought it would be. I bought it would just be a story about a woman passing letters between too lovers. I did not expect it go into the trial and divorce. I actually found it very interesting. The only problem was that I didn't really care for any of the characters. It this does deserve the 4 stars I have given it.

This is a fictionalised account of the Codrington divorce of 1864, a scandalous divorce that gripped England at the time as it was reported in all of the newspapers. It follows the story of Miss Emily "Fido" Faithfull, a spinster and women's rights activist, who was a close friend to Helen Codrington, the woman accused of adultery by her husband, and sued for divorce in a spectacularly public fashion.

Divorce in the Victorian era was most certainly not as easy as it is today. It was only possible upon proving fault of the party being sued, and all of the sordid details had to be disclosed. I found the details around the law particularly interesting (I am a lawyer after all), and thought it quite bizarre that neither party could testify in their own divorce trial.

Fido Faithfull was certainly a very interesting character, but I must say that I found the account of this story too be a bit too arm's length for me to develop any level of feeling for any of the characters.

I really enjoyed this book. I have read Room by Emma Donoghue before so I knew I liked her writing style. It was set in a great era, had some fantastic, interesting characters and was action packed. I would definitely read more by this author.

This book reminded me of a few other novels: some of Sarah Waters' Victorian outings (Fingersmith, Tipping the Velvet,and Tracy Chevalier's novel about English suffragettes, Falling Angels. A quick and easy read although if you are even 1% feminist you will want to scream at the horrific treatment of women under the law at this time, while also wanting to smack Fido silly for being so manipulated by Helen. It feels like Donoghue goes out of her way to make Helen, undoubtedly the victim in this story, as odious as possible, which is a little discomforting: Soo...what? She "deserved" it?

I'm a sucker for this kind of story. Fascinating characters and careful attention to detail to blend historical fact and fiction. Found my attitude to Helen fluctuating throughout the story, and was quite amazed at the audacity of the woman at times. Some rather unpleasant creations, but skilfully told.

Fantastic look at women's roles in Victorian society and how it was slowly changing. What was particularly interesting was the way divorce was treated - akin to a crime. The characters were engaging although sometimes you had to wonder how Fido could be so naive.

Bloody decent read, grabs you by the balls right from the odd & drags you along mercilessly to the novels very last word. How many times I wished to slap foolish Fido! How silly and immoral I found Helen, so very like Anna K in many ways. Silly women. Emma is a wonderful author, I first stumbled across her reading 'Room' & I was delighted to enjoy my second book from her just as much, even though the two couldn't be any more different! Recommend to all!